“Luke Skywalker & The Shadows of Mindor”, by Matthew Stover (Century)

A welcome return to the earlier days, following the defeat of the Empire…

With most Star Wars novels now set either in the prequel years or way beyond the events of the movies, Luke Skywalker & The Shadows of Mindor is based on events set after The Return of the Jedi, featuring all the main characters from the movies. This should be refreshing for many fans, who have become disappointed that the leads from the movies are increasingly sidelined by their offspring and completely new characters.

The story starts with Luke Skywalker still enjoying the unprecedented renown and awe from defeating the Emperor and Darth Vader. Skywalker is also struggling to come to terms with other people’s opinion of what a Jedi is and can do, which makes his job as a general pretty difficult, as his subordinates kowtow to almost everything he says through a misunderstanding about the extent of his powers. Skywalker is put in charge of the New Republic’s Rapid Response Tactical Force. His mission is to confront and defeat the elusive, mysterious Lord Shadowspawn, residing in the Mindor system. Unfortunately for our hero, his enemy is not at all what he first appeared, and is far more cunning and ruthless than any could have imagined. Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia (as well as R2-D2 and C-3PO) come rushing to Luke’s aid, only to find the situation far more precarious and lethal than expected.

This novel has everything needed to make a good Star Wars tale: space dogfights, lightsaber action, a delightfully twisted (and most intriguing) enemy, plenty of peril, adventure, and witty banter between Chewie and Han. Stover’s writing and plotting are far better than in his previous Star Wars novel, Traitor, which was part of the seemingly-never-ending New Jedi Order series.

The novel brings new elements of the Star Wars universe for the reader to think about, specifically the use of political propaganda (which Lord Shadowspawn uses with great skill), and also a little more detail of the Sith and their various types of alchemy (building on what we’ve learned from Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane series). Unfortunately, Stover is one of the novelists who insist on spelling out Wookie growls and R2’s warbles, making for some cringe-worthy and irritating passages of dialogue. Speaking of R2-D2, though, the passages that are written from the loyal droid's perspective were superb. Some of the allusions and references to previous novels and comics were a little lost on me, too (Luke’s previous interactions with former-Emperor’s Hand Blackhole, for example, were completely new to me, though a rather important part of the story). As the only weaknesses of the novel, they are minor ones, for sure.

Despite it’s rather clunky title (why not simply, “The Shadows of Mindor”?), this is one of the best new Star Wars novels in quite some time. Stover’s writing is far tighter and quicker than some other novelists employed to expand the Star Wars canon and universe, and I burned my way through this in two sittings. From the opening page until the final chapter I was hooked and thoroughly entertained, unhappy whenever life got in the way of reading.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor has breathed new life into the series, which had given some worrisome indications that it might be flagging, groaning under the weight of an ever-expanding cast and myriad different factions and side-stories.

Highly recommended for all fans of the movies and the genre as a whole.

Preceded by: “Truce at Bakura”, by Kathy Tyers

Followed by: “Rogue Squadron”, by Michael Stackpole

Star Wars - The New Jedi Order Series (Arrow Books)

This is the first mega-series attempted in the Star Wars universe, and the 19-book saga has been pulled off with amazing skill, guided admirably by Shelly Shapiro (Editorial Director, Del Rey Books) Sue Rostini (Managing Editor, LucasFilm) and Lucy Wilson (Director of Publishing Lucasfilm), and written by some of Science Fiction's leading lights. [See comments for full, chronological list of novels & authors.]

Set 25 years after Star Wars IV: A New Hope, the series covers the invasion of the Star Wars galaxy by the Yuuzhan Vong - a brutal, warlike and somewhat sado-masochistic race bent on subjugating the entire galaxy and ridding it of technology. The invasion begins in Vector Prime (R.A. Salvatore), setting the scene for the greater Vong conquest of the galaxy; focussing on the advance forces - specifically, Nom Anor, a firebrand sent to sow discord among the newly formed and still-fragile New Republic.

While the series is thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding to read, the task of reading all 19 in a row could be tiring at times. While the writing throughout was of a very high standard, there are only so many ways one can write about X-wings dogfighting with coralskippers (the Yuuzhan Vong's living ships). I found myself skimming over a number of battles just to get back to the main plot and storyline.

The characters we all know from the movies are still around, with much of the storyline focussing on the effect of the invasion and ensuing slaughter on the Solo family: in the novels following The Return Of The Jedi, Han Solo marries Princess Leia, and they have three kids - Jacen and Jaina (twins) and Anakin. Predictably, all three are strong in the force, and their development as characters underpins most of the story arc - especially that of Jacen. All three characters are very well portrayed for the most part, and you start to love them as much as Han and Chewbacca - each is very different from the other, with military-minded Jaina, introspective (and often annoyingly preachy and sanctimonious) Jacen, and impetuous and highly skilled Anakin.

The rest of the cast is made up of such a panoply of characters and races that describing them all here would be a vast undertaking. Needless to say, there are some integral characters that you see develop throughout the series, adding further layers to the story, giving it more political and emotional depth.

Two significant characters are killed off during the series, in order to provide impetus and motivation for much of the second half of the series, creating a darker feel to the Star Wars universe - something that in previous books was usually dispensed with in order to keep the fanboys happy. One death in particular caused so much anger among the die-hard fans that the author responsible (R.A. Salvatore) received numerous deaththreats! (And people thought Trekkies were a difficult bunch!)

There are lulls in the action of the series, and some books appear to go off on tangents that are welcomed as a breather from the constant toing-and-froing between the New Republic and Yuuzhan Vong. Some of the novels are less satisfying than others (Kathy Tyers' Balance Point, for example), while others exceed expectations. Dark Journey (Elaine Cunningham) and Traitor (Matthew Stover) were rather disappointing, not to mention lacking in some areas of continuity; namely everyone's amazing abilities when they get particularly desperate and succumb rather easily to the Dark Side - some of the stuff they are able to do is supposedly extremely difficult to learn... (not to mention their rather simple returns to the light). These are, however, minor quibbles.

A short overview of the better/most significant moments:

Vector Prime – The Yuuzhan Vong invade with a bang; the most surprising event is the death of a major character beloved of many. Sets the dark, more adult atmosphere for the series, and introduces us to major characters that effect the whole story arc or at least significant portions of it. Excellently written, too.

Star By Star by Troy Denning – a long, if sometimes muddled instalment, it contains some major plot points and significant events that set the scene for the second half of the series. With the invaders obsessed with eliminating the Jedi, which they perceive to be their true enemy as well as arch-heretics, the next generation of Jedi embark on a perilous quest (naturally) to seek out and destroy the nest of Yuuzhan Vong-created Jedi killers (“voxyn”), recently employed to help the enemy’s anti-Jedi pogrom.

Edge of Victory I & II, by Greg Keyes - quicker reads, and far more action-packed than the preceeding Balance Point, these novels were especially gripping. Conquest sees the younger Jedi battling for their planet (they're all taught on Yavin 4, where the 2nd Death Star was destroyed) as well as one of their member being implanted with Yuuzhan Vong memories (Tahiri, the jedi in question, forms the backbone of some major plot points from this point on). Rebirth sees Luke Skywalker and some friends infiltrating the Yuuzhan Vong's newly-acquired capital world, only to be confronted by a renegade, dark jedi - this actually seemed rather out of place, but the descriptions of the altered world and Luke's adventures on it were so well written it is easy to forgive the somewhat bizarre events that take place.

Force Heretic Trilogy (Remnant, Refugee, Reunion) by Shane Dix & Sean Williams - these detail the quest for a living planet that proves integral to the events of The Unifying Force (James Luceno), which brings the series to an explosive and rivetting finale. Although the style of writing was at times annoying (no chapters, and the story jumps every 2-3 pages between the main areas of action, which made it frustrating as you can overdose on cliffhangers!), the story itself is excellent, mixing past events from throughout the Star Wars universe (the books and Episodes I, II and III) with more information about the Yuuzhan Vong culture.

The Unifying Force finishes off the series with aplomb and fails to disappoint. Every aspect of the series is wrapped up, with mysteries solved, characters finish their various personal journies (be it Jacen's spiritual journey, or Nom Anor's... well, his life...), and the war between the Yuuzhan Vong and the New Republic (by now renamed the Galactic Alliance, because the New Republic fell apart quite spectacularly) comes to a close. There are a few surprises (look out for Onimi, the Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord's jester/familiar) and a satisfying end to the saga.

Another great science-fiction epic, it is well worth reading. I'd recommend breaking it up by occasionally reading something else, but on the whole, this is an excellent series, adding depth and character to an already highly developed science fiction universe. It might be tempting to skip books which, I suppose, would be okay, but as the 19 volumes essentially make up one extremely-long novel, I would advise sticking with the whole series - without reading them all, you won't receive as complete a picture as needed. Also, as each book contains exciting moments, you'd miss out on a lot of the fun.

All that remains to be said is: More, please!

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